Argentina. The National Communications Entity, ENACOM, eliminated the obligation to include certain signals of informative content in the programming grids of subscription television services, either by physical link (cable) or satellite.
This is in order to comply with the adaptation of Decree No. 70/2023, approved by the National Government, which proposes to "grant the communications system greater freedom for its development".
Resolution 1094/2024 annulled the "General Regulation of Subscription Television Services by Physical and/or Radio and Satellite Link" (Resolution 1491/2020), which had provided for "replacing the existing regulations regarding the inclusion of signals, commercialization and grid ordering, applicable to subscription services", and other resolutions by which the mandatory inclusion of certain signals of informative content had been imposed eminently federal in their respective programming grids.
According to the recitals of the Resolution, Decree No. 70/2023 amended the Information and Communications Technologies Law (Law No. 27,078), which incorporated the subscription broadcasting service as an ICT service. Therefore, the provisions of the Media Law (Law No. 26,522) no longer apply to cable or satellite television.
In this sense, as provided by the ICT Law, the content provided by these companies can no longer be regulated, so the charges related to the payroll and the modality of organization of the channels that make up the grids of the cable companies, imposed in Article 65 of the Media Law, are null and void. In this way, ENACOM corrects an asymmetry between the different telecommunications services that was detrimental to cable companies.
The regulation includes signals of Radio Televisión Argentina Sociedad del Estado, all public stations and signals of the National State and all those in which the National State has a stake; signals from the provincial states and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, the Argentine Catholic Church, the National Universities and licensees of open television of origin, whose coverage area coincides with the coverage area of the service.
